Blending is an automated manufacturing process used in the refurbishing of a manufactured component. The manufactured component is made of a base material. Because of wear, part of the base material is lacking and the actual profile of the manufactured component is different from its nominal profile. Refurbishing of the manufactured component may require sometimes the removal of old material, before consists adding new material (e.g. vila welding), to recreate the nominal profile of the manufactured component. In general, too much new material is added. Thus, the manufactured component needs to be further processed to eliminate the added new material in excess, for blending the added new material with the base material.
Blades are an example of manufactured components which may need to foe refurbished, via an addition of new material (e.g. via welding), followed, by a blending process. Blades are used mostly in turbine applications as in the aeronautic industry and the energy industry, and are critical components for these industries. Thus, very strict requirements (e.g. dimensions, shape) are applied to the profile of a blade, like for example the shape of an edge of the blade. Finishing operations, performed by dedicated finishing fools, are usually necessary to obtain the final profile, of the blade, in accordance with the strict requirements. Such finishing operations include the blending of added material with base material on the blade.
A finishing tool used for the blending proems comprises an abrasive device (e.g. a sand belt) with an abrasive surface, for removing added material in excess from the manufacture) component. The finishing tool may be operated by a human, or may be automatically controlled. However, in both cases, the precision of the blending process may not be sufficient to comply with nominal specifications of the finished manufactured component (e.g., the final profile of the component after performing the blending operation is not compliant with the nominal specifications). For example, too much material may have been removed by the abrasive device from a portion of the manufactured component (base material has been removed during the blending process), and/or net enough material may have been removed by the abrasive device from another portion of the manufactured component (added material in excess has not been removed during the blending process). Thus, the lack of precision in the blending process is generally due to a lack of precision in the control of the abrasive device.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus and a method for blending added material with base material on a manufactured component, which overcomes the aforementioned limitations.